S. L. FULLER
Editor in Chief
Today marks the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The nation is holding ceremonies and other events for remembrance to help each other cope with losses that still feel new, even over a decade later. Today the country will carry on a little differently than it did yesterday, with the heaviness of the past on its shoulders.
On Sept. 11, 2001, it was an ordinary day until it wasn’t. I was in second grade living in the Adirondack mountains at the time, so I guess my life stayed relatively undisturbed. But what if I had been a senior at Fredonia like I am right now? What if, on an ordinary Tuesday, the World Trade Center went down in flames and America was changed forever?
I can only imagine — but many others were actually in that situation. Justin Feasel was Editor in Chief of The Leader 14 years ago; I imagine that after the initial shock of the attacks passed, he was thinking something like this:
Oh my God. How is The Leader going to cover this? What are we going to do? How can we be there for this campus?
Not to mention that back then, the paper came out every Monday. This national catastrophe happened one day after the weekly paper already came out, which meant that The Leader could do nothing until almost a week later.
Personally, I would have super high blood pressure for that entire week.
On the other hand, having a week to seriously plan out a coverage strategy could also be an advantage. Here’s what Feasel’s paper looked like in subsequent issues:
The focus, for the most part, was on what the university was doing, as one would expect a newspaper to do. But there was also an influx of opinion in the form of both editorial and letters to the editor. It was so amazing to see people use the paper the give them a voice to share their thoughts and feelings. That relationship is what a student newspaper is supposed to be.
As we all remember today what happened 14 years ago, try to imagine what these hallways were like. Imagine what you would be doing on that day as a college student, instead of an elementary school kid. Because on Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of people were walking the campus as the nation witnessed an act of terror.